Darwen drives for growth.

It has been a long time since I did my duty by my blog. So I apologise to my reader. Sorry, Mammy. Since my last posting a lot, has happened in the markets,and most of it has been bad. But for those involved in investing in Green ventures it has not been bad. In fact,it has been pretty good. Solar PV has romped ahead, huge amounts of money have been poured into Alternative Energy start-ups and into existing companies. I wrote about Tanfield before,and I hold a small amount of shares in the company. Some would have taken profit when it hit the heights,but I didn't, as I prefer to buy and hold. So now I have come across another venture run by the entrepreneur who built up Tanfield. The new company is Darwen,and it makes buses and coaches. It also has Roy Stanley as owner of half the shares. He's the man credited with building the success story of Tanfield,the zero-emissions vehicles builder which has achieved such success already. Tanfield have developed vans and light trucks running on electricity and which are ideally suited for City deliveries. These vehicles have a decent range,with 200km between charges,and 80 kmh top speed. Now this man has bought an ailing bus and coach-builder which has a long history and culture. East Lancashire Coachbuilders was also going bust. He has added other elements to the business ,including LPD. See for yourself at http://www.darwengroup.com/products.html The Green Capitalist wasn't able to buy these shares when I first came across them last week, when they were around 38p. They have jumped to 48p in the last few days on the back of announcing a new £5m 38 bus order. What is a bus-builder doing in this blog? Well,it is simple really. The more people can be encouraged to use public transport the better. And the British Government is investing in public transport which is good for Darwen. Not only this:as concern about climate change grows,so will demand for buses. Add to this the commitment to develop hybrid buses together with the experience of electric vehicle drive-trains brought from Tanfield. Now, many companies are looking a hybrid solution,but few have the resources to put the entire package together. So I reckon these are worth watching. I'm not qualified to give financial advice but if I could risk €1000 or so, I'd certainly buy Darwen.